Paris School to hire additional kindergarten teacher for 2010-11 school year

Faced with a likely incoming kindergarten class of at least 26 — thanks to a healthy open enrollment season — the Paris School Board approved hiring another kindergarten teacher for the 2010-11 school year.

That will be the only grade at the school with two teachers next year.

Fourteen of the anticipated students are residents of the district. The rest are from open enrollment, which the school made a big push to encourage this year with the help of the citizen-led Paris YES Committee.

The open enrollment number could change some yet, said district administrator Roger Gahart. The district accepted 18 kindergarten open enrollment students.  Twelve of those have already sent letters of commitment. He said he thinks two more are likely.

Typically the district has some additional resident students come in during the summer, Gahart said.

The board had a lengthy discussion about what future staff needs might be if  open enrollment continues to swell the school’s student population.

“The schools that have had success with open enrollment have it every year,” Gahart said. “It’s a trend that has been consistent. What happened this year, I think we’ll see again.”

Board member Connie Bevry, in her last meeting as a board member, said she would like to see school enrollment grow considerably perhaps as high as 300 students.

“It would be a strong school,” she said.

And if numbers do wane in the future, board President Leslie Holloway pointed out that teachers could be laid off.

In the end the board decide the future would be difficult to predict, but that the kindergarten outlook now warranted another teacher.

“I’m concerned we need to deal with the kindergarten teacher now … to get the best we can get,” said board member Glen Bennett. “In my mind, 26 in kindergarten justifies it.”

The board voted unanimously for Gahart to pursue hiring a second kindergarten teacher.